The Will of a Nation
by Spazzcat-Katori
Summary: They are more than people, they are Nations, and a Nation is the sum of its people. And a Nation's will is the sum of the wills of the people. Oneshot, historical, various countries.


It's January 22, 1261, and a group of Teutonic knights is making battle preparations near the mouth of the Prokhladnaya River. They're organizing into two groups in order to cover more territory, but they don't realize that this tactic is their biggest mistake, because Herkus Monte was educated in Germany and so the Prussians are ready for it. They wait until the groups are far apart before swooping down like the black eagle against the halved strength of their enemy, and Gilbert is at Herkus's side when the blood begins to spill. Red eyes are flashing with anger, and it's not just Gilbert's anger, it's the anger of the pagan Prussians towards the crusading Teutonic knights, because right now he is _Prussia_, not Gilbert, and each blow he strikes has the strength of all his people behind it, fighting for their home and their way of life.

Within hours, this section of the Teutonic Order's crusading army is wiped out, and the other half of the group that gathered near the river mouth has retreated. Herkus's forces are celebrating, but Gilbert has already vanished, on his way from Natangia to Sambia, further around the lip of Baltic Sea, to join another group of his people against another group of invaders. Because _Prussia_ doesn't want these people here, because the people of this land refuse to lay down and be subjugated by these outsiders. Gilbert cannot see the future, does not know that his people will resist until the turn of the century but resist in vain, that he one day will be a Teutonic Knight himself. All he knows is that right now, he is _Prussia_, and _Prussia_ is fighting for freedom because the Prussians want freedom. He will not be Gilbert again until his people are free, fallen, or have given up the fight.

It's July 14, 1789, and nearly a thousand people are clamouring at the gates of the Bastille. They are not seeking the release of some prisoner, for the few inmates being held are of no consequence, nor are they after some high-ranking personage who has taken refuge in the fortress. It is the guns and ammunition stored there that they demand, one of the claws of the fierce cat of royal tyranny that hunts them like mice in their daily lives. Because mice, while easy prey alone, are fierce and terrifying when they swarm together, as they are doing now.

One of the mice is Francis, but at the same time he is all of the mice, because he is _France._ Just a few months ago, he stood at the side of King Louis XVI, worked alongside the government in their vain attempts to stop the growing financial crisis plaguing the country. But it could not be stopped, and each failed attempt made the people angrier. And as the people became angrier, banding together to protest the way in which the country was run, he became less Francis and more _France_, less willing to help the king find a solution and more echoing the people's desire for change. _France_ was a threat to the monarchy, even if Francis was not, and so he took to the streets with the citizens whose anger echoed in his mind day and night, driving his own thoughts from his head and replacing them with the will and desires of _France_. By the time the Bastille has fallen under the people's fury, Francis will be gone, and in his place will be a man with no name who shouts for revolution with the voices of an entire country.

It's May 8, 1821, and 9000 soldiers of the Ottoman Empire have surrounded an old inn in a town called Gravia. Their quarry is a mere 120 men, Grecian soldiers one and all, and with those odds one would assume a foregone conclusion to this battle. But such an assumption would be in error, because these men are fighting for their country and people, their home and family, and no animal is fiercer than one protecting their kin. The advantage of the playing field is theirs, for the inn chosen by Odysseas Androutsos provides good cover and many vantage points for the Greek guns. And the advantage of determination is theirs as well, visible in the face of every man and echoed in the face of Heracles, banishing his usual gentle demeanour.

Every man and woman and child of this country is calling for independence, and so _Greece_ is fighting for freedom. When the Ottoman soldiers burst into the inn, they will be met by bullets from the guns of a nation who wants nothing more to do with their Empire. _Greece_ is fighting with the strength of all his people, and his people who fight beside him match him shot for shot and fury for fury. When Omer Vrioni's men capture the inn with cannon-fire, however, they will find it empty because the Greek leader is wise and his men have already escaped to continue fighting for their country elsewhere. The strength of the people of _Greece_ has already left its mark on the 300 dead and 800 wounded of the Ottoman army, nine or more for every one of the Greeks who fought. In another nine years, _Greece_ will be free, able to sleep in the sun again as just Heracles, but until then he is a nation fighting for independence.

It's September, 1941, and hundreds of people are choking on poisonous gas in a locked room. Outside the room are tens of thousands more, most of them Jewish just like the people who are screaming and dying right now, and they know that sooner or later their turn to walk into the gas chambers will come. Until then, they labour and starve and suffer at the hands of the Germans who are in charge of Auschwitz. They are here because they have been deemed unworthy of life by a single man, and because Adolf Hitler says they unworthy, the German people say the same. Because Hitler is powerful, and _Germany_ is hanging onto his every word, words that he twists and uses to make millions of people support the deaths of millions more.

The people in the chamber are crumpling to the ground now, screams fading away into a mere echo between the thick walls, and Ludwig is horrified but he cannot do anything but stand and watch as the newly-built crematorium is christened with blood. Because he is _Germany_, and so much of _Germany_ believes that war and blood and genocide is the war to a bright future for this country because that is what Hitler tells them to believe, and they haven't seen what Ludwig is forced to watch at the newly-expanded concentration camp. After the war he will sometimes wake up with his throat raw with a scream that matches the ones that have been silenced in the chamber, and Ludwig will weep for what _Germany_ has done out of faith in a madman's words.

It's July 24, 1967, and a Frenchman is addressing the people of Quebec from a balcony at Montreal City Hall. It seems like a typical speech by a foreign politician, filled with talk of diplomatic ties and international relations. And then De Gaulle shouts "Vive le Quebec libre!" and suddenly several million people are in a frenzy and the rest of the country is in a fury, and Matthew, _Canada_, feels as though he is being split in two in a way he hasn't since he was just two parts, Upper and Lower. Because the people of Quebec want to be free and this apparent support of their cause by the president of France makes the separatist movement soar, while the rest of his people cry insult and contempt for the lives lost on the battlefields of France in the course of two wars.

De Gaulle is criticized even by the people of his native France for the words, but the damage has been done and all of _Canada_ knows that nothing will ever be the same again. Because so much of this country wants to be a country of their own and the rest will not allow it. Concessions and amendments can only buy so much time, especially with English-_Canada_ rejecting them and French-_Canada_ demanding more than is offered. For a time Matthew lives in terror of an all-out civil war, but the October Crisis chases away support for such an event even in sovereignty-seeking Quebec. There will be referendums, though, and accords, and each time the threat of splitting in two will loom greater and Matthew will not be able to think at all because half his thoughts are French and half are English and the two refuse to agree.

It's August 23, 1989, and two million people from three countries are joining hands in a single chain that spans over 600 kilometres from end to end. Hundreds of cameras film from every angle, capturing the determined stances of those standing against the Soviet regime that has ruled over them for decades, and as many microphones record their voices lifted in defiance to sing their songs of nationalism and independence that have been outlawed for so long. These are the people of _Latvia_, _Lithuania_, and _Estonia_, who have joined hands together to form the Baltic Way and show the world their desire for freedom without bloodshed.

Raivis, Toris, and Eduard are here, each in the heart of their capital through which this chain of freedom runs, but right now they are not Raivis, Toris, or Eduard, because those names fell from as two million pairs of hands joined to turn them into _Latvia_, into _Lithuania_, and into _Estonia_, and to make their voices echo those of all their people who are singing their wish to be themselves again, to call their countries their own once more, beholden to and occupied by no other nation. The hearts of the eight million people who call these lands home beat strongly with their dream of freedom, and it is a dream that will come true just two years from now with no fighting or blood, just as promised by the way all of _Estonia_, _Lithuania_, and _Latvia_ has chosen hymns of independence instead of battle marches, and Raivis's voice is not his but instead is the voices of 2.7 million people of _Latvia_, and Toris's is that of the 3.7 million people of _Lithuania_, and Eduard's the 1.6 million of _Estonia_. The hands joined across their lands will only remain linked for 15 minutes, but their voices will echo much longer, all across the world, until _Latvia_, _Lithuania_, and _Estonia_ are free of Russia and Raivia, Toris, and Eduard no longer live in fear of Ivan.

It's an ordinary day, and everything is calm. There are no revolutions sweeping through countries rejecting those who lead. There are no rebellions against oppression or subjugation pitting captor against captive. There are no madmen seeking to dominate the world, nor empires seeking the same. Instead, the world is filled with seven billion people going about their daily lives, each making their own path for their own individual purpose and desires. Some are helping, some are harming, some are happy, some are sad, some are angry, and some are falling in love. And each _Nation_ is grateful that this is how the world is today, that each person who makes up who they are is standing alone today.

Because when the world is calm and each human being is standing alone in their hopes, fears, emotions, and desires, the people of a country all balance each other out, joy to anger, grief to hope, loneliness to love. And because they balance each other out, Gilbert and Francis and Heracles and Ludwig and Matthew and Toris and Eduard and Riavis and the others can all think for themselves. They do not have to be _Nations_ today, merely people among their own people, with their own hopes, fears, emotions, and desires. And when they act today, it will be as themselves and according to their own wills of human beings, instead of the will of a _Nation._

oooooooo

Author's notes: It seems to me that one thing a great many Hetalia writers and RP'ers seem to forget is that the Nation-people don't just represent their country and people, they _are_ the country and people. So I was thinking on how that aspect of who they are might effect them when their people are united toward a common goal, and "The Will Of A Nation" was born. In this story, whenever you see the country name in italics, it refers to both the country and the nation-person at the same time, because they are one and the same.

The events used in this story are as follows:

Gilbert/Prussia - The Great Prussian Uprisings (1260-1274), - Battle of Pokarwis (January 22, 1261)

Francis/France - French Revolution (1789-1799) - Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789)

Heracles/Greece - Greek War of Independence (1821-1830) - Battle of Gravia Inn (May 8, 1821)

Ludwig/Germany - WWII/the Holocaust (1939-1945) - Expansion of Auschwitz II (September 1941)

Matthew/Canada - Quebec Sovereignty Movement (ongoing) - Vive le Quebec Libre (July 24, 1967)

Toris/Lithuania, Raivis/Latvia, Eduard/Estonia - Singing Revolution (1987-1991) - Baltic Way (August 23, 1989)

Any historical inaccuracy can be blamed on Wikipedia.


End file.
